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This review has been a long time coming, but alas, life gets in the way.

A couple months ago, we tried fire food and drink, located on Shaker Square. S got me a gift card last Christmas, so we’d been anxious to try it out, and finally made a date of it. It’s very nostalgic thinking about it, because at the time, it was still warm enough to eat outside… only six months to go until we can do that again.

We started with a side of popovers with local honey butter. Popovers are made with an egg batter, so it’s very airy, and not chewy like a typical roll. Very good with the butter. We also had a soup, which on this evening was a shrimp bisque with tomato. Nice combination of flavors, and not overly shrimpy.

For our main courses, I tried the tandoor roasted hanger steak, which came with a leek bread pudding, crumbled bleu, sauteed spinach, and porcino jus. (A tandoor is a circular clay oven commonly used in the Middle East and Central Asia [you often see them at Indian restaurants], and there were a lot of tandoor-prepared meats on the menu. Using this exposes the food to the actual fire [is this where the restaurant name comes from?], giving it a unique flavor.) The meat was very tender, and I’m a sucker for bread pudding, be it sweet or savory. The bread pudding was rich, and combined nicely with the slight bitterness of the spinach.

S opted for a tandoor roasted pork chop, served with corn fritters, braised collards, marinated cherries, and a bbq jus, whatever that consists of. Good Southern-style meal. The pork was again, nice and tender, and the cherries on top added a nice tart sweetness. The corn fritters and collards were just that – delicious down-home cookin’.

And finally, for dessert, we tried a lemon and berry coulis, topped with meringue. Just look at the picture and let your mouth water. You know, we never really used to eat dessert, but since we’ve been going to local places, it’s like we have to try something, since they’re usually unique and change with the seasons. You can get a walnut blondie at Applebee’s any time, but blackberries are only in season in Ohio for a couple short months.

The verdict: fire gets six out of seven stars. The food was excellent, prices were not too outrageous ($17-34), service was impeccable (starting with his fixing of our wobbly table), and chef Doug Katz even came out to see how our meal was. Have to say, that’s one of the very few times that’s happened to us, and it’s good to see the head guy taking such an interest in the customers. We’ll be back someday.